20 September 2005

Since I can retire my criterium bike for five months I put a spare PowerTap wiring harness on one of my cyclocross bikes and put a cross tire on a road wheel(no longer needed just for crits). Now I get a record of what happens during a cyclocross race. Wonder how to estimate the demands of the running sections...

I did not feel like making another stem mount out of carbon fiber so I got a worn out inner tube and cut a little piece off and made my own doohickey to mount the PowerTap CPU on the stem. I could have mounted the CPU to the handlebars but that takes up a bit more space and putting it on the stem does not hypothetically put it in the way as I am not long limbed enough to do the carry the bike with a hand over the stem move comfortably.

18 September 2005

40+ riders/DNFUsed the steel crit bike with 53/39 12/25. Probably could have used the compact gearing bike and kept it in the big ring all day with the same result. Maybe next year. Turnout was about the same or a little higher than last year. This year the event was moved from the typical right after Sea Otter date because they repaved the climb. This made it possible to go coast quite a ways up hill.

Didn't feel that great during my warmup up and this continued in the race. Right before the start, got my front tire stuck in a crack in a sidewalk and almost did a face plant onto a picket fence, saved myself with an outreached arm but the bicep on that arm is still sore some twelve hours later... Got dropped at four laps and pulled at seven. At least I was with the group for one more lap this year, using Eric Bustos' recommendation of small ring up the hill may have helped, but since the field was larger this year they pulled dropped riders. Top graph is of this years' race and bottom graph is last years' race, about the same effort, for much less time this year, didn't have anyone behind to work with (or a rabbit like Juan just in front of me) to motivate me this year, was already looking forward to cross season, too. :) 2005NP: 264P avg: 206T:15:54

2004NP: 277P avg: 220T: 26:18Chris hung in for a bit longer than me and thought the start was outrageously hard, this was partially due to Gene on the front pushing the pace for four laps but he got dropped with four to go. Bob hung out in the top few riders for ten laps and then said he had nothing left but was able to finish in the pack. Went for a ride afterwards down West Cliff Drive and to the blue whale and grey whale skeleton exhibits at the UC Santa Cruz extension and back.

05 September 2005

P: 189 Watts averageS: 24.9 miles per hour averageT: 43:51C: 84 rpm averageNP: 238 WattsTSS: 71 IF: .99Used the 22 pound road bike with the Hed 60 in front and the velocity deep rim in the back, did better than last year with the 18 pound road bike.

Chris asked if I was going on the attack on the first lap so I told him I would hold back a little and follow the Berkeley guy who always attacks on the first lap.This is what happened but the Berkeley guy went a bit harder than I wanted to go so I just followed the fellow in the yellowish jersey until we caught the Berkeley guy. Stayed near the front for a few laps then drifted back. I could hear Ray letting me know he was behind me so I wouldn't cut him off in the corners so I slowed a bit to let him in front of me as I was not feeling great. After a bit I could see Juan and Ray way up near the front, this motivated me to endure a bit more suffering as I did not want to get dropped as I did last year in my first time on the new course. Tried to conserve as much as possible, shifting down on the small hill, but using the 53 only. Many people lost a lot of momentum here and on the last two downhill corners where it was possible to ride without braking when no one was in front of you or if you just rode right next to the riders in front of you coming out of the corners. When we got to eight laps to go I was feeling a bit of relief as I knew I could finish, now just had to move up for a better result as I looked behind me and realized I was the tail gunner. Made it up to Juan when inexplicably a chain reaction crash happened on the downhill straightaway, near where the trash bin made the road narrow from 30 yards to *only* 25 yards and falling cyclists (unfortunately including Derrick and Eric, later reports indicate four broken collarbones in there) soon filled the entire width of the road... Then behind me I heard another crash, probably someone not looking up and crashing right into someone who was braking. As soon as we cleared the carnage Juan put the hammer down in an effort to close the gap between us caught behind the crash and those ahead of the crash so I gritted my teeth and got on his wheel. After two really hard laps (Juan doing most of the work) we made it back in time to rest for a lap and sprint on the next lap. On the first turn onto the uphill Juan got onto the wheel of a couple of guys who I noted were slowing significantly near the top of the climb on previous laps so I jumped to the outside of these guys and put in a hard effort to distance myself for the downhill straight and the last two fast downhill corners. Had to brake slightly in the next to last corner for some nervous nellies and just did what I could out of the last corner to beat Juan in the race within the race. I thought I had more left and was only able to get about 14 w/kg in the sprint, the NP indicates this was about as hard as I could go for the duration of the race.

02 September 2005

70kg50x15500 peak flowteammates : Paul Mircik, Vance Sprock in the 3/masters, Jim Ryan in the P12 and Claire in the juniors.Changed up the warmup again and did a longish Z4-Z5 effort and one big sprint which turned out to be my hardest effort of the night as the group was so big the only time to get a hard effort in was to be near the front and I was not aware I was near the front at the end the one time I was there.

18 riders in cat 3/masters10 lap point a lap This felt pretty easy as I just followed wheels around until the wheel I was following got gapped and I had to chase back on to catch the group just as they were sprinting for the last couple of points, several riders would go off for a few laps to get a few points and we would catch them and the last time I wasn't sure if the four riders I caught were the top four or the third through sixth because I had to chase back on but it turned out they were sprinting for the final 3-2-1 points and I just missed out.T: 5:12P: 277S: 28.6C: 110

8 lap scratch This played out like the point a lap, I followed wheels until the rider I was following got gapped, I passed, caught the group just as they were winding it up for the sprint with two to go and hung on.T: 3:36P: 313S: 27.0C: 104

Miss and outThis felt really easy as I only tried hard at the very beginning and got boxed in immediately. Started fighting for position in the pole with another rider until he spoke out - sorry Vance!, then just got in behind him, third in the pole. This was going to be safe for a little while, but would have to pay attention to who was behind me. Kind of sketchy with so many riders so I had to focus on who was in front of me too much and when I ended up at the back missed the opportunity to get out of the pole and was eliminated after about six laps, feeling ridiculously fresh.T: 3:00P: 223S: 25.0C: 92

7 lap to win and outPeter Tapscott attacked immediately but Dick jumped right on him and I didn't want to concede the race right away and jumped to catch up to them. We caught them and after they pulled up I led for a lap and pulled up and Vance got in the rotation in front of me got dropped but was going hard enough to make it hard to pass him so I followed him for a few laps and we got to witness John pull his foot out of the pedal and do a somewhat gentle solo tumble and I could sense Vance giving up at this point (understandably) with us about 30 meters back and two laps to go, watched the race play out from behind. T: 5:11P: 308S: 26C: 100